Imprinting device

ABSTRACT

An imprinting device having a frame which mounts a form supporting bed. The frame also slidably mounts strip members above the bed having printing characters on the underside and visually readable characters on the upper side. A roller platen is mounted beneath the bed and extends through a slot in the bed to rollingly engage the form and the printing characters.

O Umted States Patent 1 1 1111 3,739,718 Zupancic June 19, 1973 [54] IMPRINTING DEVICE 3,004,487 10/1961 Herbert 101/269 3,572,241 3 1971 Waterman 101/269 [75] Inventor: Anton Z. ZupancIc, Cleveland, Oh1o 2,826,987 3/1958 Eckhoff n mm X [73] Assignee: Addressograph-Multigra h 3,003,415 10/1961 Herbert 101/269 Corporation, Cleveland Ohio 3,468,244 9/1969 Hu 101/45 X 1 Filed: F 1 1972 Primary Examiner-Robert E. Pulfrey Assistant Examiner-E. M. Coven [211 228696 4 ,anarny kifimiizaat afiiia s'. Pyle 521 US. Cl. 101/45, 101/269, 101/56 [51] Int. Cl 1341f 3/20 1 ABSIFRACT 581 Field 01 Search 101/45, 56, 111, lmprmtmg s frame whlch mounts 101/109 269474 form supporting bed. The frame also slidably mounts strip members above the bed having printing characters [56] References Cited on the underside and visually readable characters on the upper side. A roller platen is mounted beneath the UNITED. PATENTS bed and extends through a slot in the bed to rollingly 16 2 engage the form and the printing characters. 3:373';682 3/1968 Angelw: 101/45 1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figures A2 at 24 4Z2 F 1 Z2 1 38 I I I I Patented June 19, 1973 1 IMPRINTING DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to imprinting de vices, and more particularly to compact relatively inexpensive printing devices suitable for light duty work.

With the increasing number of credit transactions taking'place it is becoming increasingly desirable and even necessary to automate the handling of their financial aspects. Such automation includes high-speed handling of payments and the records thereof from the purchaser making such payments. Payments in the past have conventionally been handled principally by checks, which checks by individual consumers are normally handwritten, both as to the payee and the amounts. Since handwriting is not susceptible to machine reading with sufficient precision at the present state of the art, each check must be individually humanly read and the payee and the amount properly entered. Conventional prior art printing devices have been directed to heavy duty service. They require a heavy support bed structure. Those which print variable amounts have manually settable printing wheels which printing wheels are disposed beneath the bed and extend through openings in the bed and underlie the form which is placed on the bed. Printing is by pressing down upon such character devices. A rather complex intricate bridge structure is required to support a roller platen for pressing forms, such as check sets, and printing devices into printing engagement.

Such commercial structures require complex precision print wheel parts which are expensive and require devices to drive the print wheels. Such drive devices are relatively expensive structures and therefore undesirable for light duty use. Thus a need has arisen for a simple, very inexpensive data recorder which can be mass distributed, and which is economically feasible to be discarded and replaced if malfunctioning occurs rather than requiring expensive repair service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention a relatively small, simple, inexpensive printing device is provided which is especially adapted for individual use in making payment of various credit accounts.

The device includes a base and a cover member with a form supporting bed located below the top of the cover. The cover mounts a plurality of strip members having on the underside thereof printing characters and on the upper side corresponding visually readable characters. The strip members are selectively positionable toplace selected printing characters in printing alignment superimposed overthe form supporting bed. Disposed beneath the form supporting bed is a roller platen which is movable ona track in a printing path of travel. The form supporting bed is slotted in alignment with the printing characters on the strip members and the platen is disposed to extend through the slot and into printing engagement against the form and the aligned printing characters.

Thus, by reversing the structure in contrast to the prior devices, inexpensive strips bearing print characters replace print wheels normally carried in the machine bed. Printing up instead of down has the advantage of providing a simple inexpensive structure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an imprinting device according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken substantially along the plane designated by the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken substantially along the plane designated by the line 33 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of one of the character carrying strip members.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing, an imprinter according to this invention is shown which includes a base 10 and a cover 12 mounted thereon together constituting a frame. The cover 12 includes a face plate 14 which mounts a plurality of printing elements in the form of character carrying strip members 16.

Each of the strip members 16 has a plurality of printing characters 18 formed on the underside thereof and corresponding visually readable characters 20 on the upper side thereof. Each of the strip members 16 also includes a finger tab 22 at one end thereof and a guide tab 24 at proper opposite end thereof. The finger tabs 22 and guide tabs 24 extend through axially aligned slots 26 and 28. As can be seen in FIG. 1 the finger and guide tabs are at alternate ends in adjacent strip members. This allows the strip members tobe placed relatively close together and still provide sufficient room for an operator to grasp the finger tab to set the strip member. This mounting of the strip members 16 allows an operator to slide strip members 16 to select the desired printing character. The selected printing character 18 will correspond to the visually readable character 20 immediately thereabove and the visually readable characters are framed in character display openings 30 formed in the face plate 14 between the slots 26 and 28.

Spaced just below the face plate 14 is a form support bed 34 which is adapted to support a form or form set directly beneath the face plate 14. In FIG. 2 a form F is shown in position to be inserted through opening 36 in the cover. The form, when fully inserted into the machine will extend to approximately the position in dotted outline on top of the form support bed 34. Form stops 51 provide a gauge to establish the proer printing position.

As seen best in FIG. 3 the form support bed 34 includes an elongated slot 38 which slot is disposed directly below and in line with the printing characters corresponding to the characters displayed in the character display openings 30. The slot 38 also extends a distance greater than the field containing the strip members 16.

A roll platen 40 is provided beneath the form support bed 34. The roll platen 40 has a pair of side rollers 42 which engage a guide track 44 formed in the base 10. A handle 46 is secured to the roll platen 40 by means of a shaft 48.

At one extreme end of the guide track 44 there is a depression 50. When the roller platen 40 is disposed in the depression 50 the top thereof is below the top of the form support bed 36 as can be seen in dotted outline in FIG. 2. However, when the side rollers 42 of platen 40 move out of the depression into the main portion of the guide track 44 the platen 40 extends through the slot 38 so that it will roll in printing engagement with the printing characters 18 on the strip members 16 which are at the position of the character display openings 30.

The device of the present invention is extremely simple in its operation. In order to perform a printing function the handl 46 is grasped and moved to the left as viewed in FIG. 2 until the side rollers 42 of platen 40 are in the depression 50. The form F is then inserted through opening 36 in the cover 12 and pushed to the position against stops 51. The handle 46 is then grasped and moved to the right as viewed in FIG. 2. This will first raise the roller platen 40 up into the main portion of the guide track 44 where it will roll in printing engagement with respect to the form and printing characters 18 on the strip members 16 causing an imprinting of the selected characters onto the form. This imprinting can be done with releasable ink contained in the form or forms as is well known in the art.

The handle 46 is pulled until the roller platen 40 moves to the extreme right position as viewed in FIG. 2 at which position it will have passed beyond the end of the form F. The form F can then be withdrawn after which the handle 46 can be pushed to the left to return it to the position shown in dotted outline in FIG. 2. Alternatively the handle could be left in the far right position and the next form inserted and the printing operation started from this position and finished with the roller platen in the position shown in dotted outline in FIG. 2 at which time the form can be removed. Hence a single stroke printing operation is possible which can be started at either end and completed at the opposite end, the form being removed after the single stroke of operation.

Thus it can be seen that a very simple inexpensive and practical device is provided according to this invention. Only a single base and single cover need to be provided with a minimum of parts needed. No expensive bridge structure is required to carry a roller platen moving over or on top of a bed requiring covering of both the bed and the bridge structure independently. The device is inexpensive enough that it can be discarded and replaced if it malfunctions, rather than requiring expensive repair.

I claim:

1. A device for printing on sheet material, said device comprising a base, cover means fixedly connected with said base for at least partially defining a platen chamber and a print chamber, said cover means including a face plate, a form support plate connected with said face plate to at least partially define said print chamber, and entrance means for enabling a sheet of material to be inserted into said print chamber between said face and support plates, said support plate including surface means defining a longitudinally extending slot which connects said print chamber in communication with said plate chamber, a plurality of longitudinally extending printing elements slidably mounted on said face plate, each of said printing elements including surface means defining a longitudinal array of print characters which are disposed in said print chamber and which extend transversely to the longitudinal axis of said slot, manually actuable means for moving the printing element relative to said face plate along a path extending transversely to the longitudinal axis of said slot to thereby move each of the print characters on the printing element in turn into alignment with said slot, and indicia means disposed on the outer side of the printing element to identify the print characters, guide means connected with said face plate for guiding movement of said printing elements along linear paths extending transversely to the longitudinal axis of said slot, indicator means connected with said face plate for c0- operating with said indicia means on each of said printing elements to identify the print characters which are disposed in alignment with said slot, a longitudinally extending guide track disposed in said platen chamber and having a longitudinal axis extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of said slot in said support plate, roller platen means disposed in said platen chamber and movable along said guide track to effect a printing on sheet material disposed in said print chamber with print characters which are aligned with said slot, said roller platen means including a roller having an annular surface means for rolling along the sheet material in the print chamber and pressing the sheet material against the print characters aligned with said slot during movement of said roller platen means along said guide track, said guide track including means for supporting said roller in a first position in which said roller extends through said slot into said print chamber, means adjacent one end of said guide track for enabling said roller to move from the first position to a second position in which said roller is spaced from said print chamber, said means adjacent said one end of said guide track including recess means for enabling said roller to move transversely to the longitudinal axis of said guide track in a direction away from said support plate upon movement of said roller from the first position to the second position, and handle means connected with said roller platen means for moving said roller platen means along said guide track with said roller in the first position.

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1. A device for printing on sheet material, said device comprising a base, cover means fixedly connected with said base for at least partially defining a platen chamber and a print chamber, said cover means including a face plate, a form support plate connected with said face plate to at least partially define said print chamber, and entrance means for enabling a sheet of material to be inserted into said print chamber between said face and support plates, said support plate including surface means defining a longitudinally extending slot which connects said print chamber in communication with said plate chamber, a plurality of longitudinally extending printing elements slidably mounted on said face plate, each of said printing elements including surface means defining a longitudinal array of print characters which are disposed in said print chamber and which extend transversely to the longitudinal axis of said slot, manually actuable means for moving the printing element relative to said face plate along a path extending transversely to the longitudinal axis of said slot to thereby move each of the print characters on the printing element in turn into alignment with said slot, and indicia means disposed on the outer side of the printing element to identify the print characters, guide means connected with said face plate for guiding movement of said printing elements along linear paths extending transversely to the longitudinal axis of said slot, indicator means connected with said face plate for co-operating with said indicia means on each of said printing elements to identify the print characters which are disposed in alignment with said slot, a longitudinally extending guide track disposed in said platen chamber and having a longitudinal axis extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of said slot in said support plate, roller platen means disposed in said platen chamber and movable along said guide track to effect a printing on sheet material disposed in said print chamber with print characters which are aligned with said slot, said roller platen means including a roller having an annular surface means for rolling along the sheet material in the print chamber and pressing the sheet matErial against the print characters aligned with said slot during movement of said roller platen means along said guide track, said guide track including means for supporting said roller in a first position in which said roller extends through said slot into said print chamber, means adjacent one end of said guide track for enabling said roller to move from the first position to a second position in which said roller is spaced from said print chamber, said means adjacent said one end of said guide track including recess means for enabling said roller to move transversely to the longitudinal axis of said guide track in a direction away from said support plate upon movement of said roller from the first position to the second position, and handle means connected with said roller platen means for moving said roller platen means along said guide track with said roller in the first position. 